There's no sugarcoating it: The Panthers aren't close, and need...

NHL Awards wrote:

And Our "POST OF THE YEAR" goes to.......... Louie,
who, on March 17, after a 3-0 shutout loss to Washington at the BAC, posted this gem:
"If our offense would've scored, it would have been a different game, and possibly a different outcome."
**APPLAUSE****LAUGHTER*****
Accepting on behalf of Louie, are these Panthers stars from our current "rebuilding process"....
Dave Nemerovsky, Ivan Novoseltzev, Vaclav Nedorost & Juraj Kolnik.....
"We are confident Panthers management will make significant off-season moves to improve our team as we continue to build a strong foundation for the future"......
**APPLAUSE*****LAUGHTER***
This award has been brought to you by
Alan Cohen's Short Sale Default Mortgage Company Ponzi Scheme

Ahh, thank you for the award. It is much appreciated, I shall cherish it. I thank the Academy, my parents, and my second grade teach, Sister Heather. I will use the stipend which surely goes with the award to feed the homeless who emigrate from Irvine to locales such as South Florida in search of hockey knowledge. Should there not be enough of those ex-Irvinians to partake of the award money, I will use the remainder to purchase a Sy Syms suit since YO covets such suits so greatly.

In deciding on this coveted award, I picture you and your Irvine Intelligista comrades happily sipping your lattes at the local beanery, with you engaging in leftist banter with fellow denizens of Irvine, wearing your che guevara beret and your John Lennon commie glasses, shouting "Louie, Louie, he is the winner, he is the exalted one!". It is a soothing thought which increases the happiness I feel as I have just returned from the final Panthers game of the season where the Cats scored 7 goals and beat the Caps.

I have another for you. Had the Panthers earned just a couple more points, they would have made the playoffs.

GO CATS!

Here's an idea: let's move the team to the Western conference. Right now they'd be 6th over there.

If the Panthers had earned ONE more point, they'd have made it. Just one. One stinking overtime goal or one less third-period collapse. If Horton hadn't gotten injured, they'd be in. If Vokoun hadn't given up that softie in Philly, or that second goal to Columbus, or the Panthers had scored more than one in their last visit to ATL... etc, etc.

They're a first line center and a few soft goals short of being a good team, but the bottom line is that they weren't good enough this year and management will not be able to get a quality center without giving up too much. Same old story. The team won't tank to get a first overall pick, and the team won't be good enough to get into the playoffs or past the first round. Call it "Dan Marino Syndrome", except without the Dan Marino-type player.

The Panthers are the absolute best team in the league to miss the big show. For God's sake, even Jokinen is in this postseason!

I'm going to be sick now. See you all in October.

JimH wrote:

Here's an idea: let's move the team to the Western conference. Right now they'd be 6th over there.
If the Panthers had earned ONE more point, they'd have made it. Just one. One stinking overtime goal or one less third-period collapse. If Horton hadn't gotten injured, they'd be in. If Vokoun hadn't given up that softie in Philly, or that second goal to Columbus, or the Panthers had scored more than one in their last visit to ATL... etc, etc.
They're a first line center and a few soft goals short of being a good team, but the bottom line is that they weren't good enough this year and management will not be able to get a quality center without giving up too much. Same old story. The team won't tank to get a first overall pick, and the team won't be good enough to get into the playoffs or past the first round. Call it "Dan Marino Syndrome", except without the Dan Marino-type player.
The Panthers are the absolute best team in the league to miss the big show. For God's sake, even Jokinen is in this postseason!
I'm going to be sick now. See you all in October.

You're assuming that if tonights game really meant anything, they would have shown up...and won it.

That's assuming too much.

How can you possibly say they are far off when they finished tied in points with Montreal and missed the playoffs by the second tie breaker??? I do agree that they ABSOLUTELY MUST add a topline forward who can score on a consistent basis. Had Martin brought one in for the finish we might be discussing who the first round playoff opponent will be. The SoFlo media loves to bash this team. WHY?? My theory is the majority of them never attend a game and dont know a blue line from a goal crease..They coverup their lack of knowledge by bashing..

The media down here wouldn't know hockey if someone stuck a frozen puck up their collective arse.

They are not far off. Possibly 1-3 players but they have to be the right guys. We can all point to blown leads, soft goals etc. but not only did they miss by a point they missed by lousy one goal or one more shootout win so imagine if Martin would have added a better point producer than Stillman (nothing against Stillman mind you) in the offseason...a younger guy who would played more games and scored more than 17 goals? Or if after signing Stillman he would have added one more Stillman type veteran (like I and a few other posted at the time that one forward wasn't enough). Then he gets a second chance at the deadline to bolster the forward group and instead does nothing but trade for Eminger yet another "puck-moving" D-Man. If Martin is here again next year which I'm guessing he will be, he has finally got to address they scoring problems they have and not use Bouwmeester's departureas an excuse to spend all offseason revamping the defense again.

gogo wrote:

How can you possibly say they are far off when they finished tied in points with Montreal and missed the playoffs by the second tie breaker??? I do agree that they ABSOLUTELY MUST add a topline forward who can score on a consistent basis. Had Martin brought one in for the finish we might be discussing who the first round playoff opponent will be. The SoFlo media loves to bash this team. WHY?? My theory is the majority of them never attend a game and dont know a blue line from a goal crease..They coverup their lack of knowledge by bashing..

Smart on the money post by gogo.
If the Panthers had gotten a couple of more points and made it into the playoffs, the article would have been saying what a great turnaround they made and how they are now on their way to success and how DeBoer is a genius. When writers don't go to the games and don't really know hockey, they write drivel like this. Bottom line is, the Cats should've made the playoffs this season. JM should be sent packing and more offense needs to be added to the team. It will be an interesting off season.

observer wrote:

They need to overpay and get Johan Franzen here. He knows how to win, scores goals and makes those around him better. He would be a number one center here. They still need to get another top six forward on top of that.

It would be helpful if you stayed current with the news. Franzen has already signed with the Red Wings. He even took what some consider to be discount, agreeing to an average of $4 million for 11 years. He want to end his career as a Wing. He and his agent are on record as saying that they expected to get well over $5 million in free agency, but took less to stay with the Wings.

The sad part is that NO elite player wants to sign here with the Panthers.

DK Schrute wrote:

The media down here wouldn't know hockey if someone stuck a frozen puck up their collective arse.
They are not far off. Possibly 1-3 players but they have to be the right guys. We can all point to blown leads, soft goals etc. but not only did they miss by a point they missed by lousy one goal or one more shootout win so imagine if Martin would have added a better point producer than Stillman (nothing against Stillman mind you) in the offseason...a younger guy who would played more games and scored more than 17 goals? Or if after signing Stillman he would have added one more Stillman type veteran (like I and a few other posted at the time that one forward wasn't enough). Then he gets a second chance at the deadline to bolster the forward group and instead does nothing but trade for Eminger yet another "puck-moving" D-Man. If Martin is here again next year which I'm guessing he will be, he has finally got to address they scoring problems they have and not use Bouwmeester's departureas an excuse to spend all offseason revamping the defense again.

With all due respect, they have been "1-3" players away for the past several years. And every year that same moving target appears and every year they don't come close to hitting it. Last year Olli was the problem, so they trade him for 2 d-men, rid the lockerroom of the supposed "cancer", but that doesn't do the trick. In fact, while a supposedly bolstered defense was supposedly a team strength, they still gave up a league leading shots against per game of 34.7. And now with Bouwmeester leaving, that defensive unit is now going to need re-bolstering.

While saying 1-3 players, you infer that this isn't very much. However, the truth is that the kind of 1-3 players they need are of the more elite variety. A top line center is a serious need, but there just aren't many available. A top line wing who can score is a serious need, but they cost more money than this team is usually willing to spend. A top pair defenseman is now a serious need, but there aren't too many of them around either and they generally cost too much.

1 to 3 players is generally what is needed by every team that is on the outside looking in come playoff time. That is why they are on the outside looking in.

It's not a lot of players they just have to be the right one or two which as you correctly point out (and I well know) is always the problem here. Actually one elite forward and one more 20+ goal guy (those guys can be had for a good price) would do the trick in my opinion. I am just pointing out what I think they need to not only get over the hump but actually be a good team. Not my fault they can't or won't spend the money. They are shedding a lot of veteran contracts this year so they should have money to spend - will they? probably not there is always some excuse.

Even with Bouwmeester leaving they don't need to replace him with a similar type first pairing expensive player. They already have McCabe (who would have had better numbers than Bouwmeester if he had played a full season) and Ballard who I think was a better player than Bouwmeester this season for the most part plus Ellerby should be ready soon and Allen should be back next year too. The D is deep enough and will get by - it's was mediocre( as you pointed out) with Bouw here and will be the same next year without him. While losing talented players always sucks I honestly don't think his leaving is going to be the big a blow. They need FORWARDS plain and simple. Ultimately the reason they failed was they had too much money tied up in the D (most in the NHL btw) and not enough left over to upgrade the forwards on the top 2 lines. With Bouw leaving the $$$ is there they just need to spend it and spend it wisely but I have little faith they will.

Alright enough Panthers already...let's get to some playoff talk people!

I'm pulling for the Caps in the East and the Blackhawks in the West. Dark horse team is the Anaheim Ducks. Would love to see Detroit get bounced in round one. Great organization but I'm sick of them always being there towards the end.

JM is staying according to Cohen. I like the Panthers young kids, I think Repik and Mattias show a lot of promise. I think it should stay the same except find us a CAPTAIN! Its ridiculous for this team not to have a captain and a "go to" guy down the stretch. that's what this team is missing. I wonder had they had picked up Guerrin or Satan at the deadline if things would have been different.

Rob wrote:

Ethan, really, you're better than this. You're the same cantankerous Florida sports fan; you support not trading Bousmeester, then you complain when they don't make the playoffs. I had a lot more respect for you before I read this. And calling out Horton? Sure, he was hurt this year. But for 4 mil he's not a bad deal. Don't give into this fickle market. Yeah, the ownership is weak. You can't do anything about that. So quit complaining like a little girl. Besides, it's not like you go to the games for free right???

For 4 mil. he's not a bad deal? What league are you watching. For 4 bucks he's a waste. he has less hits than Vokoun. It's going to take a lot more than just one elite forward added to this team.
And if Bo goes, which I'm not certain of, the defense is still strong. You need an elite center and big winger to team with Booth. a playmaking center and scoring wing to pair with Frolik on the second line. Weiss is a third line center at best, paired with Stillman and McLean. Olesz and Kreps have had plenty of time and opportunity to step up and have not done so. I'd rather see them do well elsewhere than continue their mediocrity here.
trade Horton for a bucket of pucks and a broken goalies stick. You'll be coming out ahead.